US grounds all flights nationwide over communication outage
Summary
A telecommunications outage has forced the United States to ground all departing flights nationwide, causing widespread delays and cancellations at major airports. Authorities say the disruption does not appear to be a cyberattack and may take time to resolve.
Key Points
- The FAA ordered a rare nationwide ground stop after a communications outage disrupted air traffic operations.
- The problem appears to have started at Chicago Midway International Airport before spreading across the country.
- Thousands of passengers were stranded as major airports such as Miami, Chicago O'Hare and Newark faced delays and cancellations.
- US agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security and the NSA have joined the investigation, with no sign of a deliberate attack so far.
